Ocasio-Cortez is never shy about touting her feminist cred, but what is more anti-woman than taking hormonal contraception to suppress one’s natural fertility and then spending a fortune to try to conceive via invasive medical procedures with a high rate of failure? Even then, one might well be forced to use another woman’s eggs. The structure of the modern economy makes it difficult for women to start a family in their 20s and 30s, but that doesn’t mean women should simply give up on that idea and freeze their eggs instead. //

In the Vanity Fair interview, AOC cites Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth as a role model. Duckworth gave birth to her second child via IVF at age 50. In 2018, Duckworth told Marie Claire that she consciously prioritized working over having a family. “I made the choice early in my career that I don’t want other women to have to make. When I was in my 20s and trying to rise through the ranks of the military, I knew if I took time off to get pregnant and raise my children, it was going to affect my career.”

While Duckworth might say other women shouldn’t follow her example, the images of her entering the Senate floor for the first time with her newborn while other lawmakers applauded send a very different message. No wonder AOC looks up to her. In 2020, the women we lionize are freezing their eggs until they’re 50 and embracing “dog motherhood” in the meantime.

Many young women in America look up to AOC. It is tragic that she is giving them such incomplete and irresponsible advice, endorsing the fertility industry’s myths and presenting pet parenting as a serious alternative to actual motherhood.

“I don’t want to be a savior, I want to be a mirror,” Ocasio-Cortez told Vanity Fair, and she is getting her wish. She is no savior. Young women who listen to AOC on fertility might well end up facing enormous sadness and lifelong heartache.